HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation, twelve have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $385.67.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on HCA shares. KeyCorp lowered their target price on HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company cut HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total value of $3,075,250.47. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. This represents a 38.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of HCA Healthcare

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 11,655,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,498,417,000 after buying an additional 116,826 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 4,503,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,351,830,000 after purchasing an additional 23,177 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,871,057 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,159,882,000 after purchasing an additional 50,321 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 322.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,141,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,276,909,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397,883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,928,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $878,975,000 after purchasing an additional 19,121 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

HCA opened at $316.07 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $78.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.64. HCA Healthcare has a 1 year low of $289.98 and a 1 year high of $417.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $313.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $350.82.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $5.90 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is a positive change from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.91%. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is presently 13.11%.

About HCA Healthcare

HCA Healthcare, Inc, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy.